Monday, 15 October 2012

Sweet potato, silverbeet and black bean soup

Last week I made pumpkin scrolls (more about them later). With a filling dessert, I decided a simple stew was all I needed for dinner. I had sweet potato roasting in the oven, a tin of black beans in the pantry and silverbeet in the garden.

Our spring weather has been rather fickle lately. When it started to
rain, I rushed out to photograph and harvest the silverbeet. I needn't have bothered. No longer had I rushed in the door, then the rain stopped.

You can't blame me for not trusting my luck. That afternoon, I had been trying to listen to a Boy George interview on the radio when Sylvia poured herself a large glass of milk, spilled it over the floor and while I rushed to get the mop, she tried to sweep it up with the broom! Argh!

I've had a series of these sort of small misadventures lately. Not that I have much to complain about:

Bad news - I knocked over a plastic container of flour. The plastic was so old and brittle that a piece broke and flour went everywhere.

Good news - When I made bread with the remaining flour, I found the lump of plastic before the bread went into the oven. (Honestly I thought I had taken out the broken plastic before tipping the flour into another jar!)

Bad news - Sylvia tipped heaps of sand out of the sandpit all over the backyard.

Good news - She was having such a lovely time playing on a warm and sunny day that I couldn't be too cross!

Bad news - I arrived at work today to find my 'Rennie Mackintosh' necklace that I wear most of the time had disappeared.

Good news - I found it when I got home. Hurrah!

With the soup, the bad news was that there was too much silverbeet for E. The good news was that he only had it one night. I had it two nights in a row and really enjoyed it. It came together quickly and meant I could eat more pumpkin scrolls!

Fry onion in olive oil for a few minutes and add squash and garlic for a few more minutes. Stir in cumin and smoked paprika. Add stock, roasted sweet potato, silverbeet, black beans. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve scattered with avocado chunks.

On the Stereo:Fold your hands child, you walk like a peasant: Belle and Sebastian

11 comments:

Ugh, I had a day like that. Where do they come from? I turned on the wrong burner, so the pot of water never boiled, while the teakettle took so much heat that I think it melted the enamel. It changed its color anyway, and who knows what it did to the interior coating. After it cooled and I removed it from the burner, the color was back to its original, but there was some of the enamel stuck on the burner. Then I reheated some food for dinner, and put some naan bread in the oven to re-heat. I forgot about the bread, and as I ate the food my whole apartment filled with smoke. At least the weather was nice for opening up all the windows.

Thanks Bliss - I feel your pain - every now and again I light the wrong burner but luckily remember in time - but I understand it is easily done - good luck with your teakettle - hope it wasn't a sentimental possession.

Thank goodness for positives to balance out the negatives! This sounds like a lovely week night meal and reminds me that I really need to buy more black beans...I wanted some this week but our local supermarketss don't carry them in tinned form.

Thanks Kari - I found black beans the other day and had used mine so poorly that I bought two tins to be sure I got a good use out of them - I only see them every now and again so I get excited when I see them

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.